In San Diego's season of political unrest, there has been one constant in a sea of uncertainty: Donna Frye.

This maverick councilwoman, who placed first yesterday and heads to a Nov. 8 runoff election against former Police Chief Jerry Sanders, came into the contest as the front-runner.

NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune

Donna Frye talked to customers yesterday at the Big Kitchen in South Park. Frye, yesterday's top vote-getter, could face her toughest test yet in the mayoral runoff.

There was an inevitability about her from the start – not necessarily that she would win it outright yesterday, but that she would lead the pack.

Despite being the wire-to-wire favorite, the math was against her taking it all in what essentially was a primary election. To end the race last night, she needed a majority – a tough hurdle to clear in a field of 11 candidates.

Now the question becomes whether she will get that majority in a one-on-one race against Sanders.

In this campaign, Frye was able to float above the fray, in part because most of the competition was between Sanders and health care executive Steve Francis for the second spot. She won't have that luxury next time around.

The political dynamic changes going into the fall. This may be the toughest test yet for Frye, a Democrat. Sanders is bound to pick up a substantial amount of the support that went to fellow Republican Francis. But Sanders may also appeal to Democrats, to some in the labor movement and to those decline-to-state voters who see Frye as an activist unsuited for an executive role. The philosophical differences will not be as sharp as they would have been in a Frye-Francis race.

In any case, the past several months have seen the remarkable transformation of Frye, 53, from perceived novelty act to political force.

Frye has occupied a contrarian niche on the City Council, voting often in the minority on 8-to-1 council votes.

It was lonely territory, but a good place from which to launch bids for mayor, given that much of what the majority at City Hall has been up to has come into question recently.

"With all of the scandals that have been happening in the San Diego region, the public is disgusted with what they perceive as backroom deals," said lobbyist and Republican activist John Dadian.

"They want somebody fighting for them, and they see Donna Frye as that person."

San Diego is gripped by a fiscal crisis driven by a huge pension-system deficit, which has sparked multiple federal investigations, resulted in six current and former pension trustees being charged with felonies and bent the national media spotlight here in unflattering ways.

Five weeks before last November's mayoral race, Frye entered the contest as a write-in candidate, altering a campaign that appeared to have former Mayor Dick Murphy on the verge of losing to county Supervisor Ron Roberts, whom Murphy had defeated in the 2000 mayoral race.

Most local pundits wrote off Frye as having no chance. They would eat their words.

Frye got more than one-third of the vote, taking a substantial share of the anti-Murphy vote and pushing Roberts into third place.

She almost won. Her supporters say she did win but was wronged when the courts tossed out more than 5,500 ballots in which voters wrote in Frye's name but did not fill in a corresponding bubble, as required by state law. If those ballots were counted, it would have tipped the election to Frye.

The court drama drew national attention, along with the inevitable shopworn clichés about the "surfer chick" who almost won it all.

This time around, the national media was attracted to San Diego's multiple woes, from Murphy's resignation to the recent convictions and resignations of Councilmen Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza.

This election was different from last year's. Frye did not take her opponents by surprise or offer promises of open government unaccompanied by a substantive policy platform.

This time, Frye presented a financial plan that included calling for putting the affairs of the troubled pension system in the hands of a court-appointed receiver. Last week, the City Council edged closer to Frye's position, voting to spend $250,000 to have a law firm study the preliminary steps.

She also called for having a judge determine whether pension-benefit increases were legal. And she reminded voters that she did not vote for the controversial increase in 2002.

Frye also unveiled her vision of what the city administration would look like under the strong-mayor form of government, which begins Jan. 1. Frye's plan is based on the federal model, with several cabinet secretaries reporting to the mayor.

She did not support the strong-mayor ballot measure, which was approved by voters last year. But her plans were the most detailed of the campaign. Sanders announced who his chief executive would be but said little else. Francis said even less.

And while Francis ran as the outsider, Frye was able to maintain her outsider's aura, thanks to her independent streak at City Hall.

She showed herself to be an instinctive politician, running a smart campaign aimed at addressing policy questions and preserving her lock on a spot in a runoff election.

Unlike Sanders, she declined to spar directly with Francis after he launched ads that said either one of them would raise taxes.

Convention was stood on its ear. Typically, front-runners become targets. In this election, her leading position was conceded. Had she looked poised to win a majority, she no doubt would have drawn more flak.

Frye had a celebritylike aura that her rivals lacked. Her rallies were better-attended, her speeches delivered with more vigor and energy, and her supporters responded in kind.

When leading statewide Democratic office holders came to San Diego to endorse her, one could wonder who benefited more – Frye, or the visiting politicians who basked in the reflected glow of a rising populist star.

They included state Treasurer Phil Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly – both running for the Democratic nomination for governor next year and eager to shore up support in San Diego – and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

She electrified her supporters as much as she turned off the Republican establishment, who view her as dangerously liberal on issues from taxes to gay marriage.

Former Democratic Assemblyman Howard Wayne, a Frye supporter, believes her popularity flows from integrity, the city's strong base of Democratic voters and the sense that San Diego has been ill-served by backroom politics.

"She was the one who challenged the way things were," Wayne said. "She spoke from the heart. Things really were as bad as she was talking about. She spoke the truth."

Labor leader Jerry Butkiewicz sees Frye as Everywoman.

"She's one of us," said Butkiewicz, whose San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council endorsed her. "She's worked as a maid, she's worked in a kitchen, she's worked in a gas station. She's worked hard for a living . . . people can relate to her. She is us."